Belhaven to Broad Creek

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's) 

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 34 – May 4, 2017

In the morning, we left Belhaven on the Pungo River, the same river we had come in on, but this time we turned the other direction when we got to the ICW channel. The Pungo was not quite as brutal as it had been coming in yesterday, although the waves did build the farther out we got! Soon enough, though, we entered the Alligator River – Pungo River Canal, which is a sheltered canal a little over 20 miles long. This part of our day was very smooth, and we made excellent time, mostly around 7.5 statute miles per hours. We had identified Broad Creek as our destination for the day before we left because it is near Albemarle Sound and has a boat ramp for shore access for Baxter. 

The far end of the Alligator River – Pungo River Canal dumped us directly into the Alligator River, which was whipped up by howling winds into one ugly body of water, wide and shallow, and the time to Broad Creek seemed interminable. The Pamlico had knocked our fillings out but this was worse by an order of magnitude.

Broad Creek Anchorage

Daydream anchored in Broad Creek

We were incredibly relieved to make the turn into Broad Creek and get anchored near the channel to the boat ramp in about four feet of water – there was less than a foot of tidal swing, so we knew we would be okay. The wind was blowing, a steady wind with frequent gusts, so we put out 60 feet of rode. Still, this was merely a stiff breeze compared to the Alligator River! Broad Creek is actually quite well protected, which is another big plus if you ever need a place to wait for the weather to improve before crossing Albemarle Sound.

Despite the wind and chop in the creek, I got the kayak down and managed to get Baxter to the boat ramp. The ramp is maybe 40 yards down a channel off Broad Creek, and we had to deduce where the channel entrance was. The Active Captain entry said the channel entrance was marked with a cross, which at one time it might have been, but now it is marked, as we guessed, by a white pipe with a red band at the top some twenty yards out in front of the channel. The channel is maybe 30 feet wide but unless you are directly in front of it, all you see looking at the shore is the line of reed grasses. Calling this a “boat ramp” is a bit charitable too – it is a little graveled incline down to the water from the dirt road, but it was more than adequate to land the kayak!

There is no T-Mobile service here but our Verizon Jetpack provided needed connectivity for weather information. We consulted Weather Bug, and it was clear that Friday would be no good for a crossing – predicted 25-35 mph winds with gusts to 45 would make a crossing downright dangerous. Worse, Weather Bug told us we were in for a thunderstorm and rain this evening. So we knew we would be here for at least one extra day waiting on the weather. The thunder and lightening and torrential rain started in the evening, and Baxter was terrified. The big question, though, was whether the weather would improve on Saturday.

DAY 35 – May 5, 2017

The thunder, lightening, and rain continued through the night, and the wind had us swinging on the hook pretty good. The rain continued into today, as did the wind. How to spend a day waiting for weather to improve? We were running out of data on the Jetpack, and we wanted to conserve data for when we needed to consult Weather Bug, so computer time was severely limited. We should have switched our iPhones from T-Mobile to Verizon for the Loop but we didn't. So we spent the day mostly reading novels on our Kindles! Around 2:00 p.m. the rain temporarily abated enough to take Baxter ashore for the first time of the day, and almost as soon as we got back, it started up again. Not much more to tell, breakfast, margarita, lunch, gin and tonic, nap, dinner, more reading, and go to bed! When I took Baxter to the boat ramp, the water had risen to the level of the dirt road. The last thing we did was to consult Weather Bug for a potential crossing of Albemarle Sound tomorrow – not to be. The winds were still forecast to be 20+ mph all through the day. We will sit a second day tomorrow waiting for the winds to abate. The boat ramp apparently is actually used as a boat ramp, as we saw crabbers go out in the afternoon and return in the early evening.

DAY 36, May 6, 2017

Last night the wind was strong with higher gusts than before, or so it seemed to us, but no rain. All night long we heard the rode creaking and the water slapping the boat. There was no rain today either, and the skies were actually partly sunny. The wind continued with strong gusts throughout the day. Today's activities were largely a repeat of yesterday's, except now Weather Bug tells us the winds should be tolerable for a crossing tomorrow. We are keeping our fingers crossed! When Baxter and I were up on the dirt road above the boat ramp this morning, the crabbers came down the road with their boat on a trailer and launched at the ramp, where the level of the water was now over the road. I ran the generator some last night and some more this morning, and we are back up to full charge. I think it has been too dark here for the solar panels to do much!

We are hopeful for a crossing tomorrow! Weather Bug says the winds will be down to 11 mph. We can probably handle that, but we will poke our nose out tomorrow and then decide.